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Tag Archives: Iowa Hawkeyes

With the narrative firmly in place, the Gophers entered Tuesday night’s game against #20 Iowa in a precarious position: win and put themselves in position to score an NCAA Tournament bid or lose and abandon basically all hope of waltzing into the postseason. And for a team that has basically played up or down to its opponent’s level all season, Minnesota’s found itself in an opportunistic situation. Behind career games from Austin Hollins and Charles Buggs (!) and superb performances from Andre Hollins and Drizzzzzy…

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Life on the bubble, and particularly life on the bubble in the Big Ten, is full of second, third, and fourth chances. The Minnesota Golden Gophers have yet another opportunity to save their season on Tuesday night when the Iowa Hawkeyes come to town for a nationally televised game. A rivalry that seemed to be on the verge of death a few years ago is once again alive and well. The Gophers ruined Iowa’s chance to make the NCAA tournament with an Austin Hollins buzzer beater a year ago. Iowa hopes to send the Minnesota to the NIT this year. College basketball is nothing without rivalries, and it is much better when those rivalry games matter.

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On Sunday afternoon, for the first time since 2006, the Golden Gophers will face a ranked Iowa Hawkeyes team in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. In January of 2006, the Hawkeyes led by Pierre Pierce, beat the Gophers 66-60. Eight years and four combined head coaches later, what was once a great rivalry is beginning to have meaning again. Rivalry games always matter, within the context of a rivalry. Beyond bragging rights though, no one particularly cares when mediocre teams from neighboring states battle to prove which team is a little less horrible. This year, Iowa is a contender for a conference championship, and the Gophers have a chance to prove they should be involved in that conversation too.

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At about this time last year, the Big Ten was widely considered to be the best conference in America. The Gophers were on the verge of being a top ten team, and Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State all looked like national title contenders. The big questions entering the conference season involved how many Big Ten teams would make the final four. After a good but not great non-conference season, college basketball pundits are left with the much more pedestrian question of what various teams need to do just to make the NCAA tournament.

Instead of throwing out conference record predictions, or NCAA tournament seed projection, we’ll look at the non-conference performance of each Big Ten team, and the worst possible Big Ten record that could get each team in the tournament. That way, when your team starts struggling, you’ll know when to get nervous, and ultimately when to stop caring. In Minnesota, we have a word for this: February.

March Madness is the best time of the year. Whether its conference tournaments, Selection Sunday, office pools or even the tournament itself, there is plenty of excitement as we try to make sense of who’s in, who’s out and who’s going to win it all. A big part of the lead up to the tournament is trying to determine just who is going to make it in as the at-large teams. The bubble is considered extra soft this year and as the conference tournaments continue…

The best conference tournament of the season, and perhaps the most anticipated Big Ten tournament tips off bright and early on Thursday morning when the Gophers take on Illinois at 11 am. How competitive will the tournament be? Consider that the Gophers and the Illini, the eight and nine seeds respectively, are each playing for a chance to beat number one seed Indiana for the second time. Anything can happen, and probably will. Here is what you need to know.

If you are interested in a more formal preview of Sunday’s game between the Golden Gophers and the Iowa Hawkeyes, you should read our preview from two weeks ago. The information is still valid, and rehashing it all would be boring. So instead, here are a few thoughts. I’ve often discussed the life, death, and possible new life of the Gopher-Hawkeye basketball rivalry. Sunday’s game should be the most meaningful game in the rivalry since 2005. Iowa basketball was dreadful when the Gophers made consecutive…

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Days after decimating the Nebraska Cornhuskers and seemingly righting the ship on a season that had gotten away from them, the Gophers nearly laid an egg at home against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Playing mostly uninspired basketball, Minnesota was bailed out in the waning seconds of the game by an Austin Hollins three pointer that put them up by one and eventually led to the victory. It was another conference win for the Gophers, which don’t ever come easy, but the victory was far from satisfying.…

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For the last several seasons, the Minnesota Golden Gophers have had only one basketball rival, and it was not the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa was very bad at basketball, struggling to stay out of the Big Ten cellar, and if we are going to be honest without ourselves, the Gophers were not usually that much better. Even those mediocre Gopher teams found a way to beat the Hawkeyes, who because of lack of talent and lack of coaching, couldn’t put up much of a fight. In the early days of the Monson era, the Gophers and Hawkeyes took turns between being bad and medicore, which led to some not very compelling basketball games, and the rivalry nearly died.